Sexual harassment on public places

I read with interest on yesterday’s newspaper article regarding the trauma that many female passengers has to go through dealing with sexual harassment on the commuter trains. Sexual harassment not only happens in quiet secluded area but also out in the open crowded places. Reading those real life stories told from women who has experienced such a sickening encounter while they were aboard on the commuter train sends a shivers down my spine because I often take to LRT train to work too. And those station and scenario mention on the newspaper is exactly what I experience whenever I took the LRT train to work during the rush hours. You can read the full story here http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/1/16/central/19999361&sec=central

Reading the newspaper article brought back many of my own personal trauma with similar experience. My first encounter when I was 15 years old aboard the public bus heading home from school and the buses were usually packed like sardines. In the bus, I was sitting on the outside and a man standing beside me was really annoying. He was practically leaning his “middle down” area against my shoulder. As the bus was so packed while moving and stopping, he took the advantage of pretending he has no space to stand and have to lean against me. And of course I can feel his damn thing #$%@.... Well, you can imagine the rest! I wasn’t even wearing anything protruding as I was in my school uniform. The whole journey was a nightmare not forgetting I was shocked that my sleeves were wet after that. This is not the one and only such experience that I had. I remembered I had a few more other similar encounter, sometimes when I was standing aboard the public buses. I wanted to shout out when it happened but somehow being so young and innocent, my timid self held me back. I guess many of us does that too. We just ignore whatever happened and try to forget about it ever happen to us.

After my very first bad experience, I got myself some preparation. I know I wouldn’t be shouting if those things happen again because I was afraid of embarrassment. So I strategize myself. If it happens while I was sitting down in the bus, I will get out my scissors and sort of play with the scissors hoping that the pervert gets the message. Well, it works! My scissors sent out the message loud and clear! Hence, it was avoided many times that way. If I was standing, I would purposely step on the pervert’s foot as hard as I could or I use my elbow to knock on him. But most of the time I use my school bag as a shield which usually worked.

Then there is a time where I was aboard an empty bus with just a male passenger in it. He was a perverted psycho who sits on my left across the place where I was sitting. What he did was he totally unzip his pants and took out……. (you know what). And he was practically m***********g there while looking at me. It was day time and he wasn’t even afraid that someone might see. I pretended I did not saw anything and was praying so hard that he would not come over to have a sit with me! Thank goodness it was not long until other passenger aboard the bus later on. Another incident happened when I was walking home from the bus stop after school. There was this well-dressed man in a car suddenly stop by, his window down, pretended to ask me for directions but he spoke softly so I had to walk nearer to be able to hear what he was asking. Unsuspecting anything amiss, I walk closer so to be able to hear clearly what he was asking but OMG I was shocked to have to saw what I mustn’t saw and no wonder his right index finger keep on pointing down to his steering wheel while he pretended asking for direction, but his intention was to asking me to look there. I quickly ran and open my house gate and lock it and ran inside. The psycho man drove off. I was traumatized and could still remember the satisfaction look he had when he saw how shocked I was. I also felt really angry even now I am still angry when I recall back all those bad experience I had.

Thinking back all this makes me sick. It is so sickening and disgusting that I sometimes had nightmares about it. And those entire incidents happened to me during my schooling years. Thank God I have not encountered such pervert during my trip to work using the LRT train. Well, at least I have yet to experience it on the LRT train and I really hope that I won’t have to. There is a lot of psycho man out there preying on girls, especially young schooling girls. I am sure many others have had quite a similar bad experience as me or many who are lucky enough to not experience it, but have heard it happen to someone they know.